R5 The Hudson Valley Is on Lonely Planet's List of Top 10 Us Travel Destinations for 2012

Your sophomore year of college. That guy down the hall, the one who read a lot of Nietzsche and listened to a lot of Jethro Tull but never went to class. Remember when he tried to convince you that the Inca Trail was “like, totally do-able” with a backpack and a copy of Pablo Neruda’s love poems? You thought he was bonkers until he handed you a Lonely Planet guide. Wasn’t the well-thumbed, soft-blue spine on that travel book so comforting, so informative, so… right?

No doubt, and the rounded lower-case letters in Lonely Planet’s logo did it again in December with the announcement that the Hudson Valley should be on readers’ Top 10 US travel destinations for 2012.

“It’s a real city break,” said the venerable firm’s annual year-end guide of “what’s buzzing for travelers in the coming year.”

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So re-connect with that guy on Facebook—anyone know what happened to him?—and tell him you’ll meet him in the hottest destination of all.